The Lely method or Lely process is a crystal growth technology the patent for which was filed in the Netherlands in 1954 and in the United States in 1955 by Jan Anthony Lely of Philips Electronics. The method concerns the "production of silicon carbide crystals by sublimation and to semi-conductive devices comprising such crystals." The patent was subsequently granted on 30 September 1958, and was refined by D.R. Hamilton et al. in 1960, and by V.P. Novikov and V.I. Ionov in 1968.